Google is working on improved Contacts widget on Android

It appears that Google is working on removing a restriction on the Google Contacts home screen widget. Google introduced the widget last year, and for now, it lets you view only the top seven contacts on the home screen.

However, in the Google Contacts app version 4.40.48.672619802, code sleuth Assemble Debug managed to activate the new contacts widget, which allows users to add more than seven favorite contacts.

In fact, the tipster managed to add 16 contacts to the widget, and supposedly, users can add even more contacts, as the widget now features a scroller that lets users swipe up and down to view more contacts.

The contact"s widget also shows the contact"s name along with the profile avatar. If the user doesn"t prefer to use the scroller to scroll through the contact list, then they can resize the contacts widget to the entire home screen. Notably, resizing the widget to take up the whole home screen option was already possible even when the widgets were introduced.

This feature was spotted in an APK Teardown post, and there is a 50-50 chance that Google will add this feature to the stable version. Moreover, even if Google decides to add this feature to the Contacts app, there is no clarity on when that would happen.

Google was also spotted working on a feature that will let users use the Contacts app without an account. This would display all the contacts that are already synced, and users would be able to get their entire contacts list back by signing in with the Google account in the Contacts app.

Also, back in July, it was spotted that Google is making it easier to share a contact, add it to the home screen, delete it, or move it to another account by providing these options at the bottom of the contact page.

Source and image: Android Authority